Eintime Conversion for education and research 05-14-2006 @
17:22:17
Copyrighted by originating associated source:
Original

Pardons Bush Secret*

washingtonpost.com

Bush Seeks Secrecy For Pardon Discussions

By George Lardner Jr.

Washington Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, August 27, 2002; Page A01

President Bush's lawyers are trying to keep secret the inside stories
of President Bill Clinton's last-day pardons by invoking a claim of executive
privilege that extends far beyond the White House.

In pleadings filed in U.S. District Court here this month, including affidavits
from White House counsel Alberto R. Gonzales and Deputy Attorney General
Larry D. Thompson, the Bush administration contends that the privilege covers
not only advice given to a president about individual pardons, but also
government papers he has never seen and officials he has never talked to,
such as the sentencing judge in a particular case.

The stance, taken in opposition to a lawsuit filed by the nonprofit group
Judicial Watch for access to Clinton pardon records, represents a hard line
that the government has never taken. In the past, executive privilege has
been recognized for advisers who operate within the White House. Bush's lawyers
say it covers officials in any part of the government who are asked for input
about pardon requests.

The pardon is "a core Presidential power exclusively entrusted to, and exercised
by, the President himself, and the documents generated in the process of
developing and providing advice to him are squarely subject to the privilege,"
Assistant Attorney General Robert D. McCallum Jr. wrote in an Aug. 12 memo
seeking summary dismissal of the Judicial Watch case.

A legal watchdog group that has challenged both Republican and Democratic
administrations, Judicial Watch sued the Justice Department under the Freedom
of Information Act (FOIA) last year for records concerning pardons granted
or "considered" by Clinton in January 2001. The 177 pardons and commutations
that he approved on his last day in office kicked up a storm, especially
over the clemency he bestowed on fugitive financier Marc Rich, a man prominently
listed on the government's international "lookout" list, and his business
partner, Pincus Green.

"It's a bad-faith argument," Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton said of
the government's position. "The courts have already said that executive privilege
does not exist outside the White House. The Bush administration is now covering
up for Bill Clinton, Marc Rich and Pinky Green."

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said: "The president has always been
entitled to receive confidential advice and candid assessments from attorneys
in the federal government. . . . To release such documents would have a chilling
effect on the deliberative process."

In the past, even pardon recommendations sent directly to the president from
the Justice Department have been routinely made public by government archivists
after several years. But in response to other recent requests for historical
files, separate from the Judicial Watch suit, the Justice Department under
Bush is asserting the same privilege to maintain the secrecy of pardon records
as far back as 75 years ago. One set being withheld on instructions from
the White House deals with the clemency granted Marcus Garvey, leader of
the back-to-Africa movement, who was released from prison in 1927 after his
conviction for stock fraud.

Bush, himself, has yet to invoke executive privilege in the Judicial Watch
case, a Justice Department spokeswoman confirmed. In the past, the courts
have said he must invoke the privilege personally, but the government's pleadings
do not indicate whether he intends to do so.

Thousands of documents about Clinton's final pardons are at issue in the
litigation, including many "authored or solicited or received by [Justice]
Department officials in the course of preparing and providing information
to assist the President in the exercise of his constitutional pardon power,"
McCallum wrote. These would include records showing whether a government
prosecutor, sentencing judge or prison warden thought clemency was warranted
and what the FBI found in background investigations that are normally conducted
in response to clemency applications.

McCallum invoked a broad "presidential communications privilege" for all
documents. He said many of the records are also exempt under the FOIA because
they are protected by a narrower subset of executive privilege, the "deliberative
process" privilege, in that they reveal "advice, deliberations and
recommendations comprising part of the process by which Justice Department
officials assisted and advised the President in the exercise of his clemency
powers."

Clinton repeatedly short-circuited the pardon process, which
requires applications to the U.S. pardon attorney at the Justice Department;
investigation by the FBI; consultation with interested parties, from the
sentencing judge to the victim; and a report and recommendation by the pardon
attorney to the president, after a review by the deputy attorney general.

In his affidavit, Thompson, the deputy attorney general, said his office
was withholding from Judicial Watch documents "that are subject to executive
privilege," such as memos and e-mails between his staff and the pardon attorney's
office; requests for information; and summaries of selected cases, including
some with handwritten notes reflecting the deputy attorney general's viewpoint.
This appeared to be a reference to Clinton's deputy attorney general, Eric
H. Holder Jr.

Thompson said his ability to advise the president about pardons would be
"greatly impaired" if these records were "subject to public disclosure."

White House counsel Gonzales said in his affidavit that he is "aware" that
Justice is withholding internal documents prepared "in the course of performing
their responsibility" to the president. He said the assistance of officials
and staff at Justice is "critical" to the president's exclusive authority
to grant pardons.

In seeking dismissal of the case, McCallum also sought to head off congressional
interest in the records. "Congress," he wrote, "has no constitutional authority
to exercise oversight over the President's pardon power, or, therefore, to
compel public production of records relating to the President's exercise
of his pardon power."

Bush has granted no pardons or commutations since taking office.
As of July 31, he had denied 508 pardon petitions and 1,346 commutation
requests.

(Original Len: 6672 Condensed Len: 6958)

Created by Eintime:CondenseHtmlFile on 060514
@ 17:22:17 CMD=RAGSALL
(Len=7125)